In 1995 Grove purchased the crane division from “Krupp Industries Ltd” a German company. The idea behind
this was to purchase up to date crane technologies without having to design their own because as the purchase came
with 14 of its own all terrain cranes, These were added to Grove’s product line.. Krupp Crane had its own factory in
Wilhelmshaven, Germany and Grove decided it did not require two factories in Europe. As the Krupp factory had all
the latest technology for building cranes. In fact in the latter years of Coles the Sunderland factory was used as an
assembly line for components made in the German works. Eventually the decision was made to pull out of UK
manufacturing completely. That decision put an end to the company started by Henry James Coles in 1879 in a
swecond hand workshop in London.. It had lasted 119 years.
This was final blow to the last remnants of the Coles legacy in manufacturing cranes. An short announcement
at the end of the BBC Local News of Monday 10th Aug 1998 marked the final chapter of the Coles story.
“ Crane firm axes 670 jobs. A crane factory in Sunderland is to close with the loss of 670 jobs. Grove Europe
Ltd, which took over the former Coles Cranes plant on Wearside from the receivers in 1985, has announced it is
shutting down.
Staff will be laid off from November onwards and the factory will close completely by the end of the year. Davey
Hall, spokesman for the AEEU union, said: “It’s a bitter and brutal blow to the manufacturing industry in the North
East.”
Grove had kept Coles ticking over and winding down for 13 years. Coles who had employed over two and
half thousand workers at its crown works alone had dwindled down to 670 at the end. By December 1998 the
“Crown Works” factory finally closed it gates, only one department was there at the end, the parts department, an
operation to supply spares to the remaining Coles cranes in Europe, Africa, Middle East